Godrej Consumer Products eyes 25% market share in professional hair care

Sources said the brand from the Godrej stable currently has a miniscule market share and the space is dominated by Loreal which has a near 70% market share in the salon space

Godrej Consumer Products, which entered the professional hair-care market around two years back, is eyeing a 25 per cent market share in this space in the next three years.

While the global market size for professional hair and skin care stands at around Euro 12 billion, in India, this segment is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore. Of this, professional hair care market stands at Rs 1,200 crore and has been registering a 8-9 per cent growth since the past few years.

Sources said the brand from the Godrej stable currently has a miniscule market share and the space is dominated by Loreal which has a near 70 per cent market share in the salon space. Other than these two brands, at least 7 other brands, including Revlon, Avon Products, Conair, Aroma, Estee Lauder and others, operate in this category.

“Although we have entered this space late, our intention is to have a 25 per cent market share in the coming three years. We will be focussing on the affordable segment and avoid the luxury space”, said Ketan Takalkar, associate vice president of Godrej Professional.

Godrej Professional is a brand of professional hair-care products including colours, shampoos and conditioners which are sold to salons. This brand operates under the Godrej Consumer Products division of the Godrej Group.

Takalkar said since the launch of this brand it has been able to rope in 5,800 salons across the country and intends to add another 4,200 salons this fiscal year.

“Our target is to have 50,000 salons within our fold across the top 500 cities and towns of the country in the coming five years”, he said.

The company has planned a slew of seminars to rope in salon owners. However, following these seminars, the company will directly reach out to salon owners for a partnership.

It is also relying on competitive pricing for the salons. Takalkar claimed while a 50-60 ml bottle of professional hair colour from foreign brands is priced around Rs 450, its pricing for a 70 gm bottle stands at Rs. 310.

While the brands hair colours are used by professionals to service customers, shampoos and conditioners are sold directly to consumers from these salons.

Currently, hair colours account for 70 per cent of Godrej Professional’s earnings but the company sees the contribution from shampoos and conditioners to increase to 40 per cent of the total revenue in the coming two years.

Although Takalkar declined to provide details of the company’s earnings or its profitability, he said that brand should break-even in the next fiscal year.